Category: Development

Born into the privilege and comforts of a high-caste Brahmin family in Nepal, Ratna Khawas’s life changed drastically when she got married to someone outside her social class, in 1968. She and her new husband moved to his home village in Belbari, where there were no toilets or handwashing facilities. “I got the shock of my life,” she said. “I… Read More

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the situation “unacceptable” from a moral, economic and health standpoint: “We must ensure everyone, everywhere has access to safe and hygienic sanitation services that provide privacy and dignity.”  More than one quarter of the global population still lack basic sanitation. This is unacceptable – from a moral, economic & health standpoint. We must ensure everyone,… Read More

In a report, released on Thursday ahead of World Children’s Day, UNICEF outlined “dire and growing” consequences for children as the coronavirus pandemic lurches towards a second year.  Of 25.7 million #COVID19 infections in 87 countries, 1 in 9 were among children and young people under 20 years old. Not only has the pandemic directly affected their health, but it… Read More

Antimicrobial medicines, including antibiotics, have long been overused and misused, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which added that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is “spreading further and faster every day”.   AMR happening now  Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections, explained the World Health Organization (WHO), and are included in the more encompassing term of antimicrobials. … Read More

“This great achievement shows that together we can overcome any health challenge”, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director General, wrote in a tweet.  The outbreak in DRC’s northwestern Equateur Province emerged in early June and caused 130 Ebola cases and 55 deaths. Vaccinations key A key part of the response – with potential lessons for the global fight against… Read More

Speaking, via a video message, at the launch of the Fund, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed described safe sanitation and hygiene as “critical to the response that we want to see, first, because it is about human dignity; second, it is a health issue.”  4 billion people worldwide do not have access to safely managed sanitation services, and until they… Read More

“Eliminating any cancer would have once seemed an impossible dream, but we now have the cost-effective, evidence-based tools to make that dream a reality”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. The strategy, backed by WHO Member States at the World Health Assembly last week, involves vaccinating 90 per cent of girls by the age of 15, screening 70 per cent of… Read More

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency is “extremely concerned” by the surge in cases in some countries, particularly in Europe and the Americas, which is pushing health workers and health systems to breaking point.  “This is a dangerous virus, which can attack every system in the body. Those countries that are letting the virus run unchecked are… Read More

“Many efforts have been made to prevent and treat diabetes”, but the disease continues to rise rapidly in low and middle income countries, those “least well-equipped with the diagnostics, medicines, and knowledge to provide life-saving treatment”, said Secretary-General António Guterres.  A gloomy picture  Globally, some 422 million adults are living with diabetes (latest figures from 2014), according to the World Health… Read More

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was making closing remarks at the closing of WHO’s governing body, the World Health Assembly, which finalized its annual session this week after its regular May meeting was cut short by COVID-19 safety requirements. Historic vaccine advances The WHO chief highlighted the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine breakthrough announced this week, which results indicate could be around 90 per cent effective,… Read More